10 thought-provoking digital marketing stats we’ve seen this week

It’s a good’un this week. The roundup includes news about brand safety, B2B growth, and Black Friday emails. If that’s not enough, you’ll find lots more to enjoy in the Internet Statistics Compendium, which subscribers can download right here.

Without further ado…

Half of online shoppers abandon a purchase if they don’t like the delivery options

MetaPack’s latest report suggests that delivery has the power to make or break the online shopping experience, often being the difference between a purchase or an abandoned basket.

In a survey of 3577 consumers across Europe and the US, 54% of respondents said delivery defines what retailers they regularly shop with. Half of all shoppers also said they would abandon a purchase if delivery choices were unsatisfactory, while 39% would never use an online retailer again following a negative delivery experience.

Lastly, the report also suggests that expectations are rising, with 54% of survey respondents saying they want online retailers to offer one-hour delivery services in metropolitan areas.

89% of B2B businesses attribute growth to ecommerce

With ecommerce predicted to represent 11% of all B2B sales in the US by the end of this year, CloudCraze has uncovered the value B2B organisations are seeing from digital and online channels.

In a survey of more than 400 B2B decision-makers in the UK and the US, it was revealed that 48% of B2B businesses sell their full line of products online. As a result, 89% of B2B decision-makers attribute expected business growth to the success of digital commerce, and 60% indicate that the growth of digital has caused their sales team to grow along with it.

83% of 18 to 24 year olds have bought an item of physical media in the last year

While the success of digital services like Spotify and Netflix might suggest otherwise, new data from eBay indicates that a large percentage of consumers are choosing physical media.

In a survey of over 2,000 consumers, eBay found that 76% of Brits have bought a book, a DVD or Blu-ray, CD, vinyl record, or video game in the last year, rising to 83% for 18 to 24 year olds or so-called ‘digital natives’.

Insight suggests that this could be due to an increasing desire to connect with the digital world, coupled with the emotional and intellectual appeal of owning physical objects.

CMOs overhaul digital strategy amid brand safety concerns

New research from Teads has revealed that concern over brand safety has risen in the path 12 months, leading many CMOs of large UK brands to make drastic changes to their digital advertising strategies.

In a survey of 100 leading CMOs, 83% said they have become more concerned about brand safety in the past year, with 77% more worried about ad fraud than before. As a result, 95% of CMOs say they’ve overhauled their digital strategy, demanding greater transparency from suppliers and agencies, with 44% questioning their supplier relationships and 43% scrutinising agency relationships.

What’s more, 36% of CMOs say they have boycotted or reduced spend on channels that can’t guarantee brand safety, and 37% of CMOs say they are now directly involved in the execution of digital strategy.

Singles Day results in a 61% increase in mobile traffic

Analysis of Singles Day by Qubit has revealed that this year’s shopping event drew 593% more visitors from China to UK retail sites compared to an average Saturday.

There was a 236% increase in overall traffic from Singles Day in 2016, with 59% of visitors to UK retail sites from China coming from mobile.

However, despite this growth, just 16% of revenue came from mobile shoppers, while desktop generated 82% of total revenue.

Strong performance in search correlates to retail success

New research by PI Datametrics suggests that the most successful retailers are those who consider organic performance as a key KPI.

From analysis of the top UK retailers – including ASOS, Boohoo, and Missguided – it was revealed that the most successful all have a strategy focused on customer intent and search data.

ASOS has the strongest share of voice overall, which perhaps correlates to it also generating the most commercial success. Last year, its revenue grew 33% to £1.88bn.

Top retailers by share of voice

Searches for GDPR rise 215%

According to research from i-COM, more than 3x the number of people are searching for information about the GDPR legislation than they were at this time last year.

Searches for terms related to GDPR have risen by 215% in the past 12 months, going from 138,290 in October 2016 to 435,600 searches in October 2017.

Ads failing to represent diversity in Britain

According to a study by the7stars, UK advertising is failing to represent the diversity of life across the UK.

The study – which involved a survey of 1000 Brits plus face-to-face workshops – found that just 11% of people feel advertising truly reflects where they live. In contrast, 55% of respondents say that it does not, and 56% agree that the debate around diversity in advertising is a big issue.

Interestingly, there appears to be a regional split, with 18% of Londoners saying that advertising is reflective of life compared with just 1% of those in the North East.

Emotion is key to Black Friday email success – not deals

From the analysis of email subject lines by 50 UK retailers during Black Friday 2016, Persado found that five key emotions generated greater levels of success.

First, more than 20% of consumers engaged with challenge-focused emails, such as “are you ready?”. Meanwhile intimacy and encouragement also prompted consumers to respond. A third emotion was guilt, instilling in consumers a fear of missing out, as well as fascination – with interest piqued at the promise of trying something new.

Overall, Persado determined that emotional language accounts for as much as 60% of audience response, showing the clear potential for retailers in 2017.

In-app purchases boosted by ‘reward’ ads

A new study by the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) has revealed that ‘reward’ ads in gaming apps – which offer free items to users if they interact – can boost overall in-app purchases.

By studying 1.4m transaction records and in-app behaviour, JAR found that more than 17% of users made subsequent purchases after clicking on a reward ad, compared with just 2.75% of users who did not.

Finally, the study also found that those who spent more time playing gaming apps each day responded better to reward ads in terms of overall spending value.